BASS Nation Central Regional Championship – Final

See all pictures in bassing bob photo gallery.

Most fisherman reported catching their keeper bass this week on the spinner bait, stick bait, jig and rock crawler/wiggle wart. Most of the bigger stringers were caught on secondary points and in and around spawning pockets. Many anglers also caught big fish on main lake points and bluff ledges as the main channel fish are starting to move up and positioning themselves to spawn. On the first day, which was cloudy, the bite was best on the spinner bait, rock crawler and jig and on the final two sunny days the best bite was on the jig and in shade, docks and laydowns in the river areas were the best targets on the sunny days.

I talked at length with 4th place finisher Jordan Bellendier from Iowa. Jordan, like many of the out of state anglers became bassing bob members a couple of months ahead of the tournament to gain insight on how the fishing was setting up leading up to the tournament. Jordan smashed a 15+, 16+ and 18+ limit each day fishing the lower end of the lake around the dam, having never fished this lake before in his life. He relied on his fishing instincts and help from the bassing bob website to dial in a game plan. His first day he fished a football head jig on secondary splitter points leading into spawning pockets. The second two days that bite kind of fizzled for him but his instincts told him those fish were only headed in one direction, into the spawning pocket. With the sunshine on those last two days, Jordan flipped and skipped a pegged and fished texas rigged Havoc Pit Boss creature bait in between the floats of the docks and behind the docks close to the walkway floats and caught the big ones. He said most of his bites came on the first 2-3 docks just inside of the secondary points flipping the Pit Boss into the shady area of the docks.

A local angler and well known tournament fisherman Harold Stark also reported catching his big fish flipping docks on the lower end of the lake to catch nearly 17 pounds today. He was targeting docks in narrow coves with steeper banks fishing behind and under the docks with a jig.

Below by Bassmaster Writer- John Neporadny
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — The host state continued its dominance of the 2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional presented by Magellan at the Lake of the Ozarks, with Missouri angler Beau Govreau winning the tournament overall title on Friday.

A day after the Missouri B.A.S.S. Nation state team won the team competition of the tournament, Govreau of Cedar Hill, Mo., was crowned the overall champion of the tournament with a three-day catch of 15 bass weighing 64 pounds, 11 ounces. The 36-year-old contractor took over the lead on Thursday by catching a five-bass limit weighing 21-13, and followed up Friday with a 22-15 limit to win the championship and finish as Missouri’s top angler in the boater division.

The regional featured 20-angler teams from 19 states competing for top state honors and berths to the Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Magellan. The top finishing boater and non-boater from each state qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship.

“My practice went really well up the (Osage) river,” Govreau said. “I know from experience on this lake that they don’t usually bite as well up there when it is windy, rainy and cloudy. My game plan was to run up (the Osage arm) and catch them the first day but the weather didn’t let me do it.”

The Day 1 weather of clouds, rain and wind caused Govreau to change his plans. “I stayed close and managed to catch (19-15) the first day so I was sitting pretty well,” he said. “The second day I started close again because I caught them decent the first day.”

After catching a quality fish down lake, Govreau decided to run up the river where he caught three keepers. “It just wasn’t really jiving up there,” he said. So the Lake St. Louis Bassmasters club member ran back down lake and caught two bigger bass at the end of the day.

Today’s bluebird skies and calm weather prompted Govreau to run back up the river and stay there. “(The sunny, calm weather) put the fish where I could get to them and everything worked out,” he said.

Govreau caught two quality bass on a white-and-chartreuse 3/4-ounce Chatterbait, but most of his fish each day were taken on either a watermelon-candy football jig (7/16 or 9/16 ounce) with a watermelon candy plastic craw or a 1/2-ounce shaky jighead with a beaver-style bait.

A slow presentation was the key to triggering strikes. “The water is still pretty chilly so most of my retrieves were pretty slow,” he said.

The Missouri angler caught bass ranging from 1 1/2 to 16 feet deep along a variety of banks. For the shallow fish he keyed on any concrete or wood cover he could find. “The fish were in different areas every day and I had to figure them out,” he said. “But once I figured them out they were all in the same type of spot. ”

Paired with Govreau today, Frank Mixon of Abilene, Texas caught a three-bass limit weighing 10-14 to win the non-boater division. He finished with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 35-2.

The Big Bass Award of $500 in the boater division went to Ty Bowman, Mountain Home, Ark., with a 7-5 largemouth. Eddie Charleton of Alma, Ill., received the Big Bass Award of $250 in the non-boater division for catching a 7-2 largemouth.